Slow Cooker Reviews

One of the reviews described this crockpot as cool to the touch. Even on low there is a spot that is hot. On high the entire outside is too hot to keep a hand on it. A bad feature that makes me uncomfortable leaving it untended all day.

Aside from that (which is a major consideration) I love the way it cooks, the design is attractive, and the size is very convenient.

Also, I have not been able to find out what is meant by the "auto-protect safety system"

Just what I was looking for. Perfect size for side dish for pot luck, or dinner for a family. I love the clean look.

I'm single and live by myself, and I have found that this Crock Pot is an excellent way to have a really nice meal waiting for me when I get home from work. I can make enough to last a few meals, but the Crock Pot works great even with a smaller amount of food -- you just want to make sure you've got plenty of liquid in there. I use my Crock Pot all the time, and it has worked perfectly from the moment I took it out of the box. It is also quite easy to clean; even if you forget to clean it right away, a bit of a soak with hot soapy water does the trick.

Buyer Be Ware! This rival product let me down. The lid did not fit snug. In fact, it slid around loosely and left a gap on each side of the rim approx. 1/2". Concerned that the defective lid would not hold heat to properly cook food, I called customer service and they sent me a replacement lid once I verified that my lid wobbled when placed on a flat surface. Guess what! The replacement lid did the exact same thing! Needless to say, I returned the item for a complete refund.

This crockpot is an absolute dream. In addition to being a nice hearty size when you use it for just one dish it has the added benefit of being able to make a side dish at the same time. How nice to come home from work to a complete meal. The warm setting is a great bonus too!

This is the first crock pot that I've ever had, and I'm so glad I got the divided one. Meat comes out incredibly moist and flavorful without any special treatment, and with the vegetable compartment meal planning is a snap.

Ok, I'm a little confused as to what to do with this product. When I ordered it, I was under the impression it had seperate heat settings for each of the compartments. It doesn't. Apparently, the smaller compartment is used for "side dishes" that cook for the same time and at the same termperature as the food you put in the larger compartment. When you prepare soups, roasts or stews, you can use the smaller compartment for the vegetables, which tend to cook differently than meats. Who wants to cook these seperately...I'm no Emeril, but wouldn't you want to cook everything together to blend the flavors? And the instruction booklet specifies that, under penalty of death, YOU MUST USE THE CROCKPOT WITH BOTH COMPARTMENTS FILLED! Wonderful.

The crockpot itself seems to be sturdy as befits a Rival product, and I'm sure it cooks evenly and consistently, but I found the recipe guide that came with it very scanty (IMO).

So, like I said, maybe I'm missing something here, but I find the idea of a "duet" crock pot to be little more than an expensive gimmick.

The divided dish cooker would be a great product if the manufacturer would be willing to provide some recipes for how to use it.

The model I purchased actually came with a 6-quart crock, and the divided dish was included as a bonus. The cookbook that came along with it had plenty of recipes for the big crock but not a single suggestion for the divided crock. So I visited their website to see if perhaps some companion recipes could be found there. No luck.

I then e-mailed their customer service department TWICE to request recipes, mentioning that I had looked at their website and did not find what I was looking for. Both times I was told to go look at the website for recipes.

One of the representatives actually claimed that there were lots of recipes for side dishes on the website. Well, there are none. She also suggested that I purchase any of the cookbooks from their e-store. Yeah right. I should take her advice and spend some more money when she couldn't even give me correct information about the recipes on their own website. It was disappointing that their customer service people couldn't do any better than that.

So, be warned if you buy this product. If you are comfortable inventing combinations of foods on your own to cook in the divided dish, more power to you - I have no complaint about the product itself. But I would have been vastly more satisfied, had the manufacturer only gone the extra mile and offered some suggestions of companion recipes to get me started, so I'd have a sense of quantities and cooking times. And their customer service left a lot to be desired.

It's a reliable performer. It is well made and attractive, with a very sturdy lid that stays in place. Temps are evenly maintained, and each compartment can be set for a different temp. My only disappointment is that it gets very warm on the outside, enough to cause a burn.

This is a great size for a family, and all in all, I love this thing and use it frequently. I would buy it again if I had to replace the one I'm using now, BUT: As previous writers have stated, the glass lid does not fit correctly. It's too small or something, almost like Rival had a gross of extra lids from another crock pot and decided to stick them on this product. It will completely close if you pay attention to how you put it on, but if you've got one of the kids stirring for you, or hubby taste testing, forget about it getting put back on right! Also, "programmable" is rather misleading. What you can do is select whether you want to cook your meal for 4, 6, 8, or 10 hours. You are not able to pick 5 hours, nor are you able to set it up to cook on high for four hours, then switch to low. It WILL switch to a warming mode after the selected time is up, though, rather than dry out the food, which is a feature I like. All in all a good, solid product, but I'm hoping that Rival is reading this and will make modifications for future models. HINT, HINT, HINT, Rival!

The lid is NOT supposed to fit snuggly, some steam has to
be allowed to escape. This is not to say that their are not some
mutant lids out there, but these people are barking up the wrong
tree. And, don't think your lid is about to explode either, unless you put a crack in it. Handle it carefully and it will last forever.
This is a slow-cooker, but not for slow-learners.

I received this crock pot as a gift and used it once on the low/10 hour setting. I'm lucky that I was home for damage control because it started scorching my stew after 3 hours. Terrible product.

My first dinner with this crock pot was fantastic. I was a little reluctant as I am knew to crock pot cooking and my recipe had so few ingredients (potatoes, onion, pork chops & italian seasoning, salt & pepper). However in 8 hours I had one of the best dinners I ever cooked. I've never eaten pork so tender! I'm scouring the internet searching for awesome Crock Pot recipes as we speak.

Its a good addition to anyones kitchen; great for singles who don't like the mess of making elaborate meals and standing in the kitchen for 2 hours making something that's going to be eaten in 15 minutes.

Prepare the crock pot in the morning, set it and then when you get back from work--dinner is served! I am so impressed.

This pot's been a breath of fresh air in MY life! I'm in the "kids' taxi driver after my work day ends" phase. I just prepare the meal in the pot the night before and refrigerate. Next morning, I turn it on and get home to dinner-and without the preparation mess! I like the options of cooking up to 6 hours on high heat or up to 10 hours on low. That way, if I don't get the meal in the pot until later, I'm still ok. Then, if I need to do errands after work, the pot switches to warm after it finishes cooking. For my last meal, I brought some dried beans to a boil, then let them sit overnight. Next day, I cooked them on low for 10 hours and voila! The beans were cooked and the meal delicious.It DOES get hot on the outside,but that's not a problem for me. The removable inner ceramic pot makes cleanup easy do. I'm not usually this domestic, but I have to say I LOVE it!

I was surprised to see so many people were disappointed with this crockpot. I absolutely love mine. I love that it will cook and automatically set to warm once the cooking time is done. I have no complaints and find it to be very useful. I would highly recommend this brand for anybody interested in getting a crock pot.

I've owned this Crockpot for approximately two years now. I've only used it maybe 5 times. From the time I got it, it's always gotten /extremely/ hot on the sides, hot enough to cause a burn. Fair enough, I'd just be careful with it.

Well today, on use #6, it blew out my electrical outlet. I moved it to another outlet, and it threw sparks when I plugged it in. Although it worked OK, when someone moved it, it threw sparks out the back. ...

I am disappointed that the Rival 3745SC that was listed as nearly brand new and only used once or twice, however it has a big dent in the side so that the handle is loose. I also expected a book to go along with it. I guess that's what you get when you buy used. Next time I will buy new. It also took a very long time to arrive even though it was shipped FedEx.

This crock pot has met all of my expectations. This is my first crock pot with a removable crock. VERY nice (1) to remove for washing, and (2) to prepare a meal the night before, put in the fridge, and then put in the holder in the morning & plug in. My only negative comment on this item is outside gets very hot. You could easily burn yourself by touching the metal part (not the handles). I knew this before I bought it, as I had read the other reviews. As long as you're expecting the hot outside, you won't be disappointed in the crock pot.

This is a horrible crock-pot. The first one I owned went back to the store for an exchange. I thought there was something wrong with it. Everything I cooked turned into a horrible, burned mess!! I exchanged it for the same one. Same problem. It cooks WAY TOO HOT!! This one is going back too. I think I'll have to find another brand.

It is so frustrating to come home thinking you're going to have a nice hot meal and instead find a shrunken up, burned meal. Or, my chili at a rolling boil on the "warm" cycle. My other crock-pot is a Rival and it's fine. This is frustrating!

I purchased this pot about three months ago without realizing its major limitation - this "smart" pot is limited to four preprogrammed heat cycles, and it can't be used to simply keep something warm. I also agree with the other reviewers that this pot also gets a little too hot on the low setting, I found this with another relatively new crock pot from GE as well. I don't consider it dangerous, but it is annoying.

The reviewer who gave this product five stars with a "round is better"...um, well, HELLO...even if that is so, this pot is oval...either that reviewer flunked geometry, or is reviewing a different product!

While this pot hasn't cracked or broken, I am disappointed with the lack of settings and manual override. If I could simply turn the pot to warm when I want to, it would get three or four stars. It is attractive, easy to clean and plenty big enough for my family. The lid fit is OK, but not great, again similar to the GE crock pot (which suffered a broken lid handle within the first few months of light use). My old Rival crock pot lasted nearly 15 years and had none of these limitations. Does anyone make a decent crock pot anymore?

I really like the controls on the Rival 38501 crock pot. They are easy to read and easy to use with one push of a button. The clean up was also very easy and user friendly. Another good quality of the Rival 5QT crock pot is the appearance. I had many compliments when we had guests over of how nice it looked.The downsides of this product are the safety issues. While we cooked in the crock pot for the day, I noticed that the longer the pot would stew, the handle on the lid would heat up. This made it very difficult to open up the lid while trying to serve. The clear lid is wonderful to see how your food is doing, but I think the handle needs to have a safer substance. Maybe a full plastic handle instead of the hard metal or steel (I am not sure what it is made of).
Overall the crock pot is very nice I just have to be careful with my children, guests, and myself when serving anything in it.

Slow cookers are great. This one isn't. Here's why:

-- Instead of a heatproof handle, like every other crock pot I've ever seen, this handle is metal and gets hot.

-- Lid doesn't fit snuggly, so food dries out and extra liquid is necessary. It also spatters on the counter, and can be messy.

-- The smart function is stupid -- you can't independently set the cook times and the reduced heat. It cooks on low for 8 to 10 hours or high for 4 or 6. Lot's of recipes have different times, and they can't be properly set in this pot. It's practically useless.

-- You can't set the "warm" function independently of the cooking functions. For example, if you were cooking in the kitchen and wanted to serve in the dining room, you couldn't move the pot to the dining room and set it to warm. The pot only does "warm" after it's gone through the whole cooking cycle.

Conclusion: Don't buy this slow cooker. Buy a different one.

Between my mom and I, we have tried 3 different Rival 38601 6-Quart Smart Pot Slow Cooker, Chrome models. All of them have cooked much hotter than our old crock pots. When I cook in this one, I don't start cooking until afternoon so that our dinner won't be overcooked. Everything always burns in the back and on the bottom. The front of the crock pot cooks better. I'll be returning this one and getting a totally different crock pot. Both my mom and I are very dissappointed in this particular model. I've refered to the manual and followed directions, and it still is not they're best model. I've tested it with boiling water. I can boil water just about as fast in the crock pot as I can on my gas stove! Not much of a SLOW cooker. I use the crock pot 2 times a week. So I am an experienced crock pot user.

I admit I was hesitant to buy this with all the negative reviews posted here, but after researching it, I did buy it and I'm glad I did.

I love coming home from work to the smell of something cooking. I now have three crockpots and they are used quite a bit. The programmable features work well for me. If something needs to only cook for 8 hours, and I won't be home for 10 hours, no problem, it goes directly to "warm" mode.

The other nice feature is the lid and removable crock go either directly to the dishwasher or if I'm really in a hurry, I can put the unused portion into the refrigerator in the crock that it cooked in.

For those others who have spoken of meat burning in the crockpot - duh! read the directions! Unlike other brands, the Rival crockpots are heated both from the bottom and around the sides. Therefore, you need to have meat or liquids touching the sides as well as the bottom.

It is true the outside of the crockpot gets VERY hot. That is of no concern to me. There are handles to lift it with a potholder. There really is no need for your hands to come in contact with it when it is that hot!

I really like this product and I think you will too.